The biggest recruiter

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was at its strongest throughout the regime that used the communist threat as an excuse to place the country under martial law.

Washington backed the Marcos dictatorship for the same reason that it backed the other authoritarian regimes that banded together to set up the original Association of Southeast Asian Nations: to drive back the tide of communism. At the birth of ASEAN in 1967, Ferdinand Marcos had not yet turned into a despot, but communism had gained a foothold in Southeast Asia through Vietnam.

The communists won in Vietnam but the movement was contained there. In the Philippines, the insurgency grew in inverse proportion to the force of the state’s response.

Marcos’ troops, faced with guerrilla warfare, used all the weapons at the disposal of a police state: “hamletting,” forced disappearances, torture, rape, summary executions. The abuses were extended to political enemies of the state, many of whom were classified as sympathizers of the CPP and its military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA).

The suppression of freedom, the systematic abuse of human rights and social injustice fed the communist insurgency.

The lessons of those years should be kept in mind by the Arroyo administration, the only one since the restoration of democracy in 1986 that has been likened in many aspects to the Marcos regime.

Those comparisons can only be reinforced with the gruesome fate that befell Rebelyn Pitao, the 21-year-old daughter of NPA leader Leoncio Pitao, a.k.a. Commander Parago.

Rebelyn, a teacher, was snatched in Bago Aplaya in Davao City on the night of March 4. Her body was found floating in a creek the next day with five stab wounds in the body as well as marks of torture and strangulation. Her genitals bore lacerations from what appeared to be a hard object.

Her father has identified four suspects in the murder: Sergeants Adan Sulao and Ben Tipait – said to be former NPA members who are now with the Military Intelligence Group XI, Cpl. Alvin Bitang of the Military Intelligence Battalion, and an intelligence agent identified only as Pedregosa.

Names have been provided, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines must investigate the accusations against its intelligence operatives.

There is, of course, the possibility that the perpetrators are individuals out to discredit the AFP. This possibility has also been raised in the still unsolved disappearance of Jonas Burgos, son of the late newspaper publisher Joe Burgos, even if the license plates in the vehicle used in his kidnapping was traced to a military depot in Central Luzon.

But the best way to prove any theory or dispel suspicion is to solve the crime.

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Numerous reforms have been implemented to fight corruption, eradicate the coup virus and improve professionalism in the Philippine military. But 23 years of democracy did not expunge human rights violations from the AFP.

Those violations and other forms of social injustice, together with corruption and bad governance, feed insurgencies. In countries riddled with those problems, the government becomes the biggest recruiter for armed rebellions. We now have one of the longest-running communist insurgencies in the world.

Though the human rights violations are no longer as systematic as in the martial law years, the Arroyo administration, possibly because of the way it was borne to power in 2001, has always appeared reluctant to confront the AFP about the problem.

The military officer most identified with human rights violations, retired general Jovito Palparan, even warranted special mention for a job well done during one State of the Nation Address by President Arroyo.

Some ranking AFP officials acknowledge that there are still sectors in the military that believe in Marcos-era tactics for dealing with the communist insurgency.

But what can the death of a young teacher achieve? It won’t stop NPA extortionists from bombing Globe telecommunications towers. It won’t stop them from burning down farming estates or shaking down bus owners and other legitimate businessmen.

Rebelyn’s death got her father hopping mad and itching for retaliation. And because of the nature of the crime, Pitao may find sympathy beyond the communist movement if he succeeds. Especially if the government is perceived to be doing nothing to bring justice to Rebelyn’s family.

Forced disappearances, torture and summary executions may strike fear into the hearts of bandits, insurgents and their sympathizers. But such methods tend to have diminishing returns, especially when even innocent civilians become victims.

The world has seen what waterboarding and other forms of torture did to America’s war on terror under George W. Bush. The noblest cause is not served by ignoble methods.

If military intelligence agents were truly behind the brutal murder of Rebelyn Pitao, the AFP should undertake a surgical excision of its rotten members. This will tell the rest of the AFP that such methods went away with martial law. It will also reassure the public that the AFP deals decisively with criminal behavior among its members.

AFP chief Gen. Alexander Yano is a respected officer; he should show why he has earned that respect. Even Yano acknowledges that ending the communist insurgency will require more than a military solution.

Torturing and murdering a young woman certainly will not end the rebellion.